First Playable was born. The first international meeting designed to bring together the main international players in the gaming sector. It is a first Italian business event in the field of video games, the result of the partnership between the Aesvi Association and the Toscana Film Commission, as part of the Sensi Contemporanei Program, with the collaboration of ICE-Agenzia for promotion to the foreign and the internationalization of Italian companies. Manifatture Digitali Cinema Pisa, an infrastructure dedicated to the support of cinema and audiovisual, with a particular vocation to technological innovation and research, has hosted this event from 3 to 5 July 2019. An event that will give a strong impetus to the development of video games production in Italy, ,
The Connection Events company, specialized in business events in the video game sector, has made its network of contacts and relationships with international buyers available to the event, as well as its match-making platform ‘Let’s Meet‘. The branding and the line-up of the international speakers of the event has been attended by Mattia Traverso, creative director of the design studio Nodo.
First Playable, in computer and industry jargon, indicates a very important initial phase in the creation of a video game, which often represents the basis for the development of a project: for this reason it is a title that has well summarized the mission of the event, which was an incubator of new projects and productions.
In fact, First Playable represented the ideal meeting focused on the video game business, where developers and publishers met, to establish collaborations and outline projects.
Consistent with the mission of the Association and its institutional partners, First Playable also set itself the strategic goal of growing Italian companies and helping them develop their business in the international video game market.
In relation to these objectives, a coaching day was held at First Playable, during which the developers were able to show a prototype, a pitch, an idea and receive feedback focused on the business; a day of teaching, with talks, organized by over 10 international speakers, experts in the various segments of the gaming market; a day of pitching, with ‘one to one’ meetings, with more than 20 international publishers.
Many international speakers have come and gone, including Łukasz Spierewka (Afterburn Creator), Martin Sahlin (Coldwood Creative Director), Ella Romanos (Fundamentally Games Consultant), Marco Colombo (Pixion Games Head of Development) Valeria Castro (Founder of Platonic Games), Stefano Petrullo (Founder of Renaissance PR), Charlene Lebrun (International PR Manager of Sega Europe), Aaron Koning (Founder of Sokpop) Juan De La Torre (Founder & PR of Team Gotham), Matthijs van de Laar (Twirlbound Creative Director), Craig Laycock (Brand Director of Two Point Studios).
Among the international publishers who participated: 1C Publishing EU, Bigben Interactive, BoomBit, CI Games & United Label, Gamigo Group, Headup Games, Iceberg Interactive, IMGN.PRO, Koch Media, Netmarble, Sega, Spawn Digital, Tencent and Wired Productions .
Special event was held on July 3rd, with the second stop of the Nindie Summit, a Nintendo event that compares the independent titles and Nintendo Switch. After the first stage held in Milan on March 26th, focused on Italian developers, the second appointment in Pisa saw a mix between Italian and international companies, which gave an even wider overview of the independent scene on the Nintendo hybrid console.
“At AESVI we believe that the launch of First Playable is an important milestone for the development of the video game industry in Italy“. – Said Marco Saletta, President of AESVI – “In recent years we have worked hard to bring Italian developers abroad thanks to the support and collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Development and the ICE-Agency and we will continue to do so with the conviction that distinguishes us. At the same time, however, we believe the time has come to put the spotlight on Italy as a producing country by inviting publishers and international investors to visit our country and meet our community of developers on the ground. For this reason we have decided to make use of an internationally recognized and reputed organizational partner as Game Connection“.
“The participation of the Toscana Film Commission in this important project demonstrates concretely the great interest we have in the development of the video game sector in Italy within the audiovisual family” – commented Stefania Ippoliti, President of Toscana Film Commission – “Indeed, it is a sector that brings with it a high level of innovation and an intrinsic capacity to contribute to the internationalization of our country. In this context, Pisa and its Manifatture Digitali Cinema represent a perfect habitat, where First Playable will be able to take place this year for the first time and grow in the years to come, becoming the reference industry appointment for Italy“.
Info on the site www.firstplayable.it.
